Paragraph 6:33–38

Many people saw Jesus and the twelve apostles leaving and followed them. Jesus had compassion on them and taught them. When evening came, the apostles wanted Jesus to send the crowds away, because there was nothing for the people to eat. The apostles did not know any way to feed so many people.

6:33a

But: In 6:33, something unexpected happened. Jesus and the twelve apostles had started to go to an isolated place, but before they got there, the crowds saw them. Some English versions signal this unexpected development with a conjunction such as But (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible). Use a natural way in your language to begin an unexpected or contrasting development in a story.

many people saw them leaving and recognized them: (There is a textual issue here that concerns the subject(s) of the clause. (1) Most Greek manuscripts and the UBS4 (page 142) have no explicit subject of the verb “saw.” The only explicit subject of the entire clause is “many.” For example, the New Revised Standard Version has: “Now many saw them going and recognized them.” (Berean Standard Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, God’s Word, New Century Version, NET Bible, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Living Translation). (2) The Textus Receptus adds the words hoi ochloi “the crowds/people” as the subject of “saw.” For example, the King James Version has: “And the people saw them departing, and many knew him.” (King James Version, possibly New American Standard Bible, which also has “the people”).) In Greek this clause literally says “saw them leaving and recognized many.” The word many can be interpreted in two ways:

(1) The word many is the subject of both the verbs “saw” and “recognized.” Many people saw them, and all of those many people recognized them. For example, the New Century Version has:

But many people saw them leave and recognized them.

(Berean Standard Bible, New Century Version, New Revised Standard Version, God’s Word, New Living Translation, Contemporary English Version, Good News Bible, NET Bible, Revised English Bible)

(2) The word many is the subject of only the verb “recognized.” The verb “saw” has an implied indefinite subject, such as “people.” People saw them leaving, and many but not all of those people recognized them. For example, the New Jerusalem Bible has:

But people saw them going, and many recognised them

(New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) along with most English versions.

many people saw them leaving: The word many refers to many people “from all the towns” (6:33b) along the shore of the lake. It also refers to some of the people who had been coming and going to see Jesus in 6:31a. These people saw Jesus and his apostles “leave/depart” or “start out” in the boat to go toward their destination.

recognized: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as recognized means here that many people were able to identify the people who were riding in the boat.

Here is another way to translate this:

knew

them: (There is a textual issue here: (1) In most Greek manuscripts, the verb recognized has no object. The object has to be supplied from the context. Most English versions have the word “them.” (2) The Textus Receptus adds the word “him” after “recognized,” so the King James Version has “recognized him.” (3) A few Greek manuscripts add the word “them” after “recognized.” Most English versions have “recognized them,” but this wording is based on the context, not on the Greek text that they followed.) The pronoun them probably refers to Jesus and his disciples. In this context, people were standing on the shore and looking out at the boat that was leaving. The boat contained Jesus and the twelve disciples. It seems probable that the people recognized Jesus and the disciples as a group, rather than recognizing only Jesus.

6:33b

They ran together on foot: The Berean Standard Bible phrase ran together on foot is a literal translation of the Greek. It may not be natural to translate the phrase ran together on foot literally, since a person always uses his feet to run.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

hurried together on foot
-or-
ran ahead together on land
-or-
ran together

from all the towns: The phrase from all the towns refers to all the towns in that area. Another way to say this is “all the nearby towns.”

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